South America’s adoption of e-commerce fuels global rise

The amount of money being spent online has risen by 24 per cent this year. Author: Joe Elvin

The amount of money being spent online has risen by 24 per cent this year.

According to the annual WebShoppers report by research firm ebit, £3.16 billion was spent via online payment services worldwide in the first half of 2011.

The report, cited on slideshare.net, attributed the remarkable increase to increased use of e-commerce in South American countries.

For example, 27.4 million Brazilians bought goods using the internet and around four million of those did so for the first time this year. Sources from ebit have predicted that this figure may rise to around 31 million by the end of the year.

According to thenextweb.com, the adoption of e-commerce has done a lot to help the Brazilian economy prosper in recent months. This would appear to be the case in many other South American countries as well.

Writing for the website, tech journalist Anna Heim commented: “Brazil’s e-commerce’s growth means it’s also creating jobs. Talent in the sector is in demand, as e-commerce still suffers from a lack of qualified workers. Almost two-thirds of the online stores surveyed had hired staff during the last six months.”

The survey indicated the main reason other Brazilians were yet to buy goods online was security concerns. Ebit claimed that this is due to a lack of education about online payment solutions in the country.